Dwindling stocks of river herring is mainly due to mid-water trawlers and an absence of round-the-clock environmental police protection. This topic was the hot topics at a meeting between Cape and Islands Rep. Tim Madden and members of the newly formed Martha’s Vineyard Dukes County Fishermen’s Association Friday.
At a meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council earlier in the week in Portland, Maine, the council voted to adopt a new management scheme which grants the Vineyard its own sector, a designation that proponents believe affords fishermen far greater control over their livelihood.
The issue of New England river herring is dealt with much seriousness. It is said that the lightly monitored, heavy fishing midwater trawlers at work in the Gulf of Maine have shattered the stocks of herring. Midwater trawlers are permitted to catch herring, which they fish in massive numbers, herding entire schools into their nets.
It is observed that a lack of regulatory oversight on the boats means that there is no policing of what mandatory measures there are to limit bycatch. Group member Warren Doty agreed that it was politically thorny, noting that the New England council had purposefully deferred a vote on the question, applying sterner monitoring rules on the trawlers with little discussion.
